The Mortal Instruments,by Cassandra Clare

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Darkened Hopes

Varsta : 24Numarul mesajelor : 131

The Mortal Instruments Series:# City of Bones (2007)# City of Ashes (2008)# City of Glass (2009)# City of Fallen Angels (March 11,2011)

The Mortal Instruments is a series of four novels by author Cassandra Clare including City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, and the upcoming City of Fallen Angels. The series has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for Children's books for 9 weeks as of June 1, 2009.

City of Bones

The main characters, Clary Fray and Simon Lewis, are at a club where Clary witnesses a murder by a group of teens, and is shocked that Simon and the club's security guard, cannot see the culprit - a boy called Jace, who claims that the boy he murdered was a demon. The next day, Jace offers to take Clary to meet his tutor, but before she can do so, she receives a distressing phone call from her mother. She returns home to find her mother missing, the apartment trashed, and a monstrous creature lying in wait for her. She defeats the creature, but is injured in the process, and Jace takes her to his home, called "the Institute", to recuperate. There, she meets Hodge Starkweather, Jace's tutor, as well as his siblings Isabelle and Alec Lightwood.

Returning to her apartment with Jace, Clary is attacked again by a demon, called a "Forsaken", which Jace kills. They escape through a magical portal to Luke's, a family friend's, house, where they meet Simon and overhear a conversation between Luke and two men who Jace reveals to have killed his father. They return, with Simon, to the Institute and recount the conversation to Hodge, who in return tells them the tale of a group of '"Shadowhunters", or demon hunters who are invisible to humans, known as "the Circle", who attempted to kill all "Downworlders", or demons. Although their leader, Valentine, was supposedly burned to death, Hodge feels that Valentine may have survived. Hodge also reveals that he, the Lightwoods, Luke, and Clary's mother were all members of the Circle.

Hodge then acquires the help of a monk with magical powers, called a "Silent Brother", Jeremiah, to discover how Clary is able to see Shadowhunters and why she was attacked. Jeremiah discovers a block on Clary's mind, and takes her and Jace to the City of Bones, where the Silent Brothers attempt to break it. Although the attempt fails, Clary discovers flashes of information, particularly the name Magnus Bane, which, with Isabelle's help, Clary traces to a party, which she attends with Jace, Simon, Alec and Isabelle. There, they discover that Magnus is the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and he placed the block on Clary, although his attempts to help her remember are unhelpful. During the party, Simon is turned into a rat by a faerie drink, and Jace and Clary have to rescue him after he is taken home by a vampire.

After returning to the Institute, Jace and Clary talk and eventually kiss, but when Simon catches them and gets angry they argue with each other. Clary begins to draw, and draws a rune which allows her to make her drawing real, leading her to believe that this was how her mother hid the Mortal Cup, within a Tarot card. They return to Clary's apartment, and are attacked by a demon who is searching for the Mortal Cup. The battle leaves Alec badly injured and Simon saves their lives. They return to the Institute and give Hodge the Cup, but he betrays them and gives the Cup, and Jace, to Valentine. When he tries to escape, Hodge is attacked by Luke in werewolf form. Luke then tells Clary that Valentine was her father, before he and his pack attack Valentine's HQ.

During the attack, Luke and Clary get inside, and while Luke is distracted, Clary finds Valentine and Jace. Valentine reveals that he is also Jace's father, making them siblings. Luke then returns to fight Valentine, with Jace's help, but Valentine escapes to Idris, where he has hidden the Cup. Clay retrieves her mother, who is in a coma, and takes her to a hospital. In the meantime, Alec has been healed by Magnus Bane. Clary and Jace meet at the Institute and express their frustration that they cannot be together.

Crimson_Moon

The Mortal Instruments - Story Behind the Story: Part I (Cassandra Clare interview)

The Mortal Instruments - Story Behind the Story: Part II (Cassandra Clare interview)

April 5, 2011: City of Fallen Angels (book 4)May 2012: City of Lost Souls (book 5)September 2013: City of Heavenly Fire (book 6)

City of Fallen Angels takes place about six weeks after the events of City of Glass. It continues the story begun in City of Bones, while also starting a new story, with new challenges and a new enemy to beset our protagonists. All the core characters from the Mortal Instruments series appear in it: Jace, Isabelle, Clary, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Luke, Jocelyn, Maia, and many more. City of Fallen Angels takes place several months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever. Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels

"Why can you see the faces on the COFA cover?" and "Why are there two people on the COFA cover?"

Because City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire aren't simply continuations of City of Glass. They're a new trilogy, with a different feeling, and a new villain, and different challenges. That's why the titles are slightly differently composed — four words instead of three — and that's why this cover looks *slightly* different. It needed to be something that recalled the previous covers, but didn't look exactly like them, as that starts to give an old, stale feeling, as well as being misleading.

I specifically asked that we start showing character faces because I thought it would help differentiate TMI Cycle Two from the previous three. Also because, while there have been many lovely covers showing only parts of the characters' faces — it's a trend that started with the Gossip Girl covers — the trend was on its way out, and I didn't want the covers to look dated.

I understand there's a strong *everything should stay exactly the same!* feeling often — that change is bad, etc. etc — but do keep in mind one thing: the people who really have power over covers is bookstores. Bookstore opinions matter more than mine, more than my editor's. And the bookstores love the cover and have in fact reported to us that in the past, fans have complained to them about the faces being cut off.

As for why there are two people, that, again, is part of showing that this is a new trilogy, that it really focuses around these characters as a team. To preserve continuity we had to start the two characters look on this book — without the Clary & Simon cover there would never be a Jace/Clary cover, an Isabelle and Alec cover, a cover, perhaps, with *all the characters .... * (Just throwing those out there, not promising anything!)